Authors note and disclaimers:
The premise of this story is simple; how two separate resistance groups one led by Sonic and the other by Sally unite together to defeat Robotnik. However it will focus around a number of different characters, not all of them fighting for good against evil. Some seek vengeance or material gain. The story will have plenty of action and a bit of romance along the way although I'm keeping the shipping hidden for now so as not to distract from the story.
The first two chapters will serve as prologues set four years before the main storyline.
It's completely AU and as a result I'm aware it might not be for everyone's tastes. It includes characters and locations from various different Sonic franchises all mixed together.
Because its AU most characters have been tweaked, some have changed role and some might appear completely OOC. However, I consider this legitimate as it's an AU story as long as the way I'm writing the characters stays consistent. There are a couple of OCs, for example, one is the main character of the prologue but they are side characters, for the most part to serve as extras or cannon fodder.
I have rated it a T due to violence and themes. Its a bit grim in places.
Obviously I do not own Sonic and all character and locations belong to their various owners except for the ones I created.
The Mobian Resistance Chronicles
Prologue- Welcome To The Machine
Location; An unknown industrial facility about three hundred and fifty miles inside Dominion Territory, Western Continent of Mobius
Date: 1955 hours, 11th April 2876, (zero day minus two)
It was quiet, far too quiet, the rabbit thought as he surveyed the towers and smokestacks of the facility. Recon Private Jack Lopes hated the cliché but it felt more than appropriate this deep inside the Dominion. There was nothing, not a sign of life anywhere.
Before he'd set out the other scouts had told him horror stories about walking through vast ghost towns and deserted cities where the silence had become oppressing. But the rabbit hadn't believed a word of it; whole nations don't just vanish. No, it was just some rumour made up to scare the newbies. But now, now that he'd been inside the dominion for five days. Now that he'd walked through the sprawling industrial cities without seeing a living soul, he'd come to the worrying conclusion that the other scouts were right.
This silence from the Dominion had been the case for the past three months; ever since the that madman, Dr Ivo Robotnik, with his promises of a revolution that would wipe out the 'animal plague' with a 'secret weapon' and return the Overlanders to their 'rightful position' over the 'beasts' had been elected to the presidency. The Acorn kingdom, the most powerful Mobian nation on the western continent, had never had a particularly healthy relation with the arrogant Overlanders so at first they'd paid little attention. However, after Acorn intelligence kept hearing the same strange stories; that the Dominion's trains ran without passengers. That the radio still broadcast but no one listened and the Dominion population seemed to have disappeared into thin air; they became understandably concerned and began to send recon soldiers, in secret, across the border to find some clue about what was going on. After five days of searching, this unlucky private had finally found something; a massive robotics factory, hidden deep in the Dominion Badlands.
He pointed his helmet cam at the large sign reading Robotnik Industries and opened the coms system. "Watchtower twenty-nine, 'Bermuda' are you getting these pictures?"
"Affirmative March Hare, no record of that place even existing on our maps."
"Permission to take a look?"
"Granted March Hare, but stay out of sight."
"Wilco."
Pulling a set of wire cutters from his kit bag, the rodent ran towards the wire fence and cut his way into the facility. After looking around, he found a small ventilation duct just large enough to squeeze inside and he crawled down it into the bowels of the factory.
After five minutes or so of claustrophobic squirming the rabbit found an exit vent that was close enough to ground level to safely climb out of. With a sharp kick, the grill came loose and the rabbit was able to drop gracefully to the floor.
On sight of the facility, the rabbit's eyes widened. He'd never seen anything like it in his life. It was like an automotive plant but it was huge, on a scale much greater then he'd ever seen before. As far as the eye could see, the factory consisted of a vast network of conveyor belts where different parts of some type of machine were being assembled by large robotic arms.
The strangest thing however was the lack of any human presence. A facility this large would surely require some form of human management, but there was nothing, no sign of life. The rabbit scurried from one hidey hole to another but never found anything. The massive facility seemed to be running itself automatically.
"Are you seeing this Bermuda?" he whispered into the com link.
"Roger, appears to be an assembly line."
"Yeah, but for what?" he asked to no one in particular, "It looks like some machines are being built down there, I'm going to try and take a closer look."
"Roger."
As silently as possible Jack slipped out of his cover and began to make a beeline across the shop-floor. As he reached the middle of the floor he was stopped dead by what sounded like a heavy metallic clank from behind one of the machines.
"Did you just hear that Bermuda?"
"Negative."
There was silence for a few seconds and the rabbit scanned the area for hostiles, but there was nothing.
"Wait, March Hare we're getting a signal error over here, your camera equipment's no longer broadcasting we need you too…" but the message was suddenly garbled into white noise.
Damn radio! The rabbit thought as he fiddled with the settings, "are you reading me Bermuda?"
Static
He fiddled with the settings a bit more changing the frequency to another watchtower, "Watchtower forty-three, 'Canberra,' come in Canberra."
More static
"What's going on?" the rabbit asked himself as he tried another setting, he'd used never had a total radio failure before. "Watchtower Sixty-three, 'Madrid,' can you read me Madrid?"
Yet more static.
He was starting to panic now, a creeping sense of dread emerged at the back of his head telling him something was dangerously wrong. He heard the clanking sound again, louder than before.
"Can anybody hear me!" he finally shouted in desperation, but no reply came, only the repeated sound of metallic clanking as a giant metal monster suddenly loomed into view from behind one the machines.
It was a large humanlike machine; two arms, two legs and about the height of an overlander, although broader in the chest. It had no discernible neck, just a domed head that seemed to rise out of its torso. It had no face, no mouth, just a single, red, flashing 'cylon' like eye. The bot was armed with crude blasters attached to the wrists and a set of fearsome looking, serrated and articulated claws on the end of its arms.
"HALT INTRUDER" the machine broadcast in a harsh electronic voice, "YOU ARE NOW A PRISONER OF THE ROBOTNIK EMPIRE"
The rabbit stood rooted to the spot in fear of this creature looming towards him, unable to either run or resist. However, before he could do either, a new voice, a human voice, broadcast itself on some sort of tannoy system throughout the factory.
"Greetings intruder," the mysterious male voice began. "My name is Dr. Robotnik, the greatest scientist in the world. You, have just had the great fortune of being the first Mobian to witness the greatest evolution in life on Mobius; the Robotnik Industry's SWATbot. Armed and equipped with the latest laser blaster technology and capable of rudimentary artificial thought, my SWATbots are the next leap forward. It is truly the ultimate weapon and the one which I will be using to conquer your measly planet," the voice began to laugh manically.
The harsh laugh shook the scout from his shock. Robot soldiers! It was Madness. Robotnik was obviously completely out of his mind and the rabbit had to tell command about what he had witnessed. He had to get the message out that these mechanical monsters existed. He reached for his radio but it was still dead.
Robotnik seemed to understand the rabbit's intention. The SWATbot suddenly lurched forwards towards the unfortunate scout, trying to capture him.
"Unfortunately, you have seen what you were not supposed too and this must be rectified."
The rabbit dodged, quickly turning on his heels and spirting back the way he'd come. Vaulting over pieces of machinery and sliding underneath conveyor belts as he fled.
His chest pounded, but a warm feeling of triumph seemed to flow him for a few seconds as glanced back and saw no sign of the thing following.
But once again the harsh voiced seemed to understand exactly what he was thinking. "As I said rabbit, these machines are capable of artificial thought. They work together," the voice boomed. "They react to your movements seal off escape."
The sense of euphoria disappeared, he rounded the final corner and found, blocking his way, two more of the metal machines. He was trapped.
As an act of desperate defiance the he pulled his 9mm Colt from its holster and fired, at point-blank range, at each of the SWATbots.
The rabbit's eyes widened in shock as his shots ricocheted harmlessly off the metal with a pinging sound similar to hail on a tin roof.
"And of course their armour plating can resist military grade small arms fire."
Slowly, but with ruthless efficiency, the metallic monsters grabbed the rabbit by the throat, torso and the legs, immobilizing him and carrying the rabbit of towards a huge cylindrical machine.
"For your intrusion rabbit, you will serve as a test-subject for my invention. The first mobian to see the future will be the first mobian to become part of the future."
The rabbit tried to free himself; he squirmed, punched, kicked and even gnawed at his assailants to no avail. It all seemed to be entertaining to the disembodied voice.
"Ho Ho Ho! Resistance is futile little rabbit so save your strength. It won't be long until you'll be above the pain and suffering of mobian-kind. You get to be the first to be evolved."
As the mad-scientist was speaking the SWATbots roughly threw the rabbit inside the cylindrical machine, smashing his head against the side as they did so.
"Don't worry; you'll be joined in a couple of days by the rest of your foul race. My SWATbots are already in position. A great new mechanical age will dawn the second I order it. Initiate test programme Alpha One."
In his daze, Jack heard only the sound of slamming metal and the cackling of Robotnik. Then, the rabbit saw a blazing white light and for a split second he felt agonizing pain, more excruciating then he'd ever experienced before in his life. It felt as though his whole body was being opened; his skin and organs, from the tips of his toes to his skull, forcibly changed, replaced by something new, something colder and more ridged. The pain was so severe his body convulsed, he thrashed his limbs emitted a deafening primal howl begging for release from the machine and the agonising sensations that shot through him.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, with a sickening clank. The door to the cylinder swung open and the rabbit saw the light of the factory again.
The maniacal voice seemed rather irritated by this, "Ah, the experiment does not seem to yet work as intended."
The rabbit was still in agony and his limbs seemed heavier than before. He wanted to reply but was unable to move his mouth or turn his head; his whole body seemed rigidly fixed into place.
"Terminate the test."
He watched helplessly as the SWATbot raised its blaster and in a burst of red light it was all over.
The Acorn Kingdom knew nothing of the sad story of Jack Lopes. Five days inside the Dominion it was simply assumed his equipment had malfunction and that he'd make his own way back to base. It was too embarrassing to assume they had lost an agent behind enemy lines. There was no word from the Dominion to suggest that they had captured him. So they were completely unaware of Robotnik's plans or the army he'd built within touching distance of the Acorn capital until it was too late...
Additional AN: Usually my notes will be at the bottom. Not much to say about this chapter I just wanted to introduce Robotnik in a slightly different way as well as the SWATbots and the Roboticisor.
There are two references to songs in this chapter, one's easy but the other is more fringe so if you think you've found it let me know.
Please R+R